Chron: Rockets get into right zone

This maybe a smart win after all

Imagine That. Rudy used zone defense, with Yao in it. Maybe something finally starts clicking.

Feb. 25, 2003, 12:50AM


Rockets get into right zone
Using Celtics' defense produces OT victory
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

BOSTON -- A wink was enough. A glance, a nod, a twitch. If the Rockets raised an eyebrow in Yao Ming's direction on Monday, the Celtics charged him.

They fronted Yao with Tony Battie. They came from the foul line. They came from the weakside baseline. They blitzed like he was a slow-footed quarterback with no protection and kept on coming.

The Rockets kept hammering on that square peg no matter how many times it wouldn't fit. But with seven minutes left and the Celtics' lead at 15, inspiration struck.

They slapped the Celtics with a version of the defense that had tormented them all night, then sliced through the holes in the Celtics' traps to make a late run to a 101-95 overtime win before 18,624 at Fleet Center.

"It's like when Dream was here," Rockets guard Cuttino Mobley said.

But in at least one way, it was better than even the halcyon Hakeem Olajuwon days.

The Rockets' win on Monday gave them a franchise-record five-game winning streak against the Celtics. It also moved them to 30-26 and past Phoenix (30-27) into eighth place in the Western Conference playoff race.

But this win was odd in a variety of ways, and not just because it matched the second-largest fourth-quarter comeback ever for the Rockets.

The Rockets won by taking what had beaten them all night and making it work for them.

Rather than sitting Yao or ignoring his plays, the Rockets continued to look for him.

They ran plays designed to get Yao the ball 35 times, including 14 in the first quarter when he could only touch the ball twice. In 40 minutes, Yao took two shots, none in the first half. He had nine points, the first time he failed to score in double figures since he had four against Detroit on Jan. 24.

"They did a pretty good job in Houston," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "But this time, they were all over him.

"They did a tremendous job. They were in front of him, behind him. When we did get it, we were anxious. But we kept our cool."

With the Celtics twisting their defense in knots to keep Yao's hands off the ball, the Rockets finally began to knock down the shots and cut through the seams left open for them. After falling behind by 15, the Celtics' largest lead of the game, the Rockets made seven of 10 shots in the final seven minutes of the fourth quarter.

"They (previously) put a lot of attention on me and Steve," Mobley said. "Then Yao came in, and it's different now. All you have to do is catch and shoot or penetrate and kick."

Mobley scored nine consecutive points in a span of 1:38. He nailed a trey with 3:06 left. After Steve Francis blocked a jumper by the 6-foot-10 Battie, he passed to Mobley on a break for a three-point play. And after Francis stripped Paul Pierce, he set up Mobley for another 3 to tie the game at 88-all with 1:28 left, completing a 20-5 Rockets run to overtime.

Mobley's next flurry was enough to clinch the win. He stepped around a crushing Yao pick to hit a jumper from 21 feet for a 92-91 lead with 2:17 left. After Antoine Walker scored on a drive, Mobley swished his fifth 3-pointer of the night to give him a season-high 31 points and the Rockets a 95-93 lead. Yao hit two free throws, and Francis hit two more with 20 seconds left for a four-point lead that sealed it.

"They were doubling and triple-teaming the big fella, and as much as we wanted to get him the ball ... they had so many hands and arms and legs on him that we didn't really want to force the ball to him and make the game a high turnover game," Francis said. "We moved the ball around. We were real patient with our shot selection. We really didn't want to go down. Whether Boston really wanted to focus just on Yao, I thought me and Cuttino stepped up to the challenge.

"They were trapping. They always trap. They always double team. The guy who dribbled the ball, myself or Cuttino, got trapped, swung the ball around, sometimes got it back and made other passes for other guys. The ball was moving around great. If we can continue to do that, I think that will be wonderful."

Francis had 33 points, nine assists, nine rebounds and two blocked shots to go with Mobley's 31 points and 10 rebounds.

But the Rockets also keyed the late run with a defensive switch. Facing a team that can shoot itself in and out of games from behind the arc, the Rockets gambled on a zone and shut down the Celtics' offense. From the time the Rockets moved full-time to the zone with 5 1/2 minutes remaining, the Celtics made four of 22 shots the rest of the night.

"That was our last resort," Mobley said. "They were scoring too easy. So coached changed it up. We went to a zone and ... they didn't know what to do. They were looking for Paul (Pierce). They were looking for Antoine (Walker). But they weren't getting clean looks."

Tomjanovich also went to the zone to allow Yao to get back on the court when the Celtics went small, with no center on the floor.

"I just said, `Let's give it a shot,' " he said.

But confounded by the Celtics' defense, the Rockets seemed to find justice in retribution.

"Teams do it to us," Francis said. "Sometimes they baffle us. I thought it was cool we were able to give somebody else the zone."